What It Is
The Act East Policy is India's 2014 rebrand of the under PM Narendra Modi, emphasizing more active strategic engagement with East and Southeast Asia. PM Modi announced the Act East Policy at the 2014 ASEAN-India and East Asia summits, marking a more proactive evolution of the 1991 Look East Policy launched by PM Narasimha Rao.
Where Look East had been primarily about economic integration with Southeast Asia, Act East signals a wider strategic engagement that combines economic, defense, security, cultural, and connectivity dimensions.
The Four Emphases
Act East emphasizes four interrelated strands:
- Enhanced defense and security cooperation including Quad participation, bilateral exercises with major powers, and arms sales to friendly states (BrahMos to the Philippines, Tejas talks with Malaysia and others).
- Infrastructure connectivity through projects like the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project.
- Cultural and people-to-people ties through projects like the Nalanda University revival, expanded scholarship programs, and Buddhist circuit tourism initiatives.
- Engagement with Northeast Indian states' integration with Southeast Asian neighbors — framing Indian Northeast development as a launching pad for Act East rather than a peripheral concern.
The four strands work together: connectivity enables trade, trade builds economic ties, economic ties enable defense cooperation, and cultural ties provide the legitimating frame for the whole enterprise.
Intersection with Indo-Pacific Strategy
The policy intersects with the Indo-Pacific and SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) maritime vision. The three concepts work together:
- Act East: bilateral and sub-regional engagement with East and Southeast Asia.
- Indo-Pacific: the broader maritime-strategic framing.
- SAGAR: the maritime cooperation framework specifically for the Indian Ocean region.
India's diplomatic vocabulary now combines all three, with overlapping institutions and initiatives that collectively position India as an active Indo-Pacific power rather than a sub-continental power.
Quad Participation
Indian participation in the Quad (US-Japan-India-Australia) is the most visible Act East manifestation. The Quad has been elevated to leader-level summits since 2021, with India hosting in 2024.
India's Quad participation is calibrated. New Delhi resists any formalization that would commit it militarily and consistently emphasizes the Quad's economic, technological, and humanitarian agendas. The participation accomplishes what Act East intends — active strategic engagement with the Indo-Pacific — while preserving Indian strategic autonomy.
Implementation Challenges
Implementation challenges have included:
- Infrastructure delays in Myanmar: the 2021 coup and ensuing civil conflict have substantially disrupted the India-Myanmar-Thailand connectivity projects. The Kaladan project's Sittwe port component has progressed; the broader highway has not.
- Difficulty competing with Chinese BRI offerings on scale: Chinese infrastructure proposals in the region are typically larger, faster, and more concessional than Indian alternatives. India has competed on quality and political alignment rather than scale.
- Coordination with Indian states: Northeast Indian state governments have varying capacities and priorities, complicating Act East implementation that depends on Northeast integration.
- Limited Indian defense-industry capacity: arms sales to friendly states have lagged behind expressed ambitions because Indian defense production is still scaling.
Recent Developments
Recent Act East developments include:
- 2022 BrahMos sale to the Philippines — first major Indian arms export to a Southeast Asian state, a landmark moment.
- 2023 India-Vietnam defense cooperation expanded with logistics-sharing agreements.
- 2024 India-Japan trilateral with US and Australia (Quad) summits.
- Continued ASEAN engagement through annual ASEAN-India summits and Indian participation in the East Asia Summit, ARF, and other ASEAN-led forums.
Common Misconceptions
Act East is sometimes assumed to have replaced Look East entirely. The two are continuous — Act East is the evolution of Look East, not a separate policy. The Look East economic foundations (ASEAN-India FTA, engagement) carry forward under Act East.
Another misconception is that Act East is anti-China. Indian engagement with Southeast and East Asia is not primarily directed against China; it reflects positive Indian interests in the region. The hedging-against-China dimension is real but secondary.
Real-World Examples
The 2022 BrahMos missile sale to the Philippines was the largest Act East defense deal to date and demonstrated Indian capacity for substantive defense exports. The 2024 India-Japan economic and defense cooperation developments continued the steady expansion of bilateral relations. The Indian Northeast Development Investment Promotion Bureau (set up in 2024) is intended to make Northeast Indian states more attractive for ASEAN investment, supporting Act East at the regional level.
Example
India's signing of the Reciprocal Provisions of Supplies and Services Agreement (2020) with Japan — enabling logistical support during joint exercises — exemplifies the Act East Policy's security upgrade.